Thursday, 18 April 2013

POINTLESS VOTING FOR PAKATAN

By
: QUEVILLE TO

KOTA
KINABALU: Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) has reminded voters that under the
Constitution of Sabah, only a political party with a majority of seats in the
Sabah Legislative Assembly shall form the Sabah government.

“Unregistered
parties and unregistered coalition of parties and NGOs are not qualified under
the law to be elected as governments,” its president Yong Teck Lee said in a
statement here.

The
target of his reprimand is Pakatan Rakyat, the loose coalition of opposition
parties and friendly groupings which remains an unregistered body.

Yong,
who tried to seal an election pact with the Anwar Ibrahim-led Pakatan in order
to reduce the field of contenders in next month’s election, said it would be a
waste to vote for candidates fielded by the coalition for the state
constituencies.

Yong
reiterated that in order to fulfil its struggle for political autonomy, SAPP
would contest a majority of state seats so that the Sabah government would be
elected by the people of Sabah and answerable only to the people of Sabah.

“SAPP
believes that this Barisan Nasional regime can be toppled through the ballot
box at both the state and federal levels.

“Unlike
Pakatan whose leaders have already conceded Sabah to the BN, SAPP believes that
the Sabah BN government can be voted out on May 5.

“This
has happened a few times in Sabah’s 50-year political history and can happen
again on May 5, he said.

SAPP
will contest 41 state and eight parliamentary seats.

Yong,
a former chief minister, said in parliamentary and state seats not contested by
the party, “SAPP will support the strongest opposition candidate who can beat
the BN candidate”.

“As
for the 41 state seats, 38 candidates will be announced tonight. The remaining
three seats will be announced very soon pending a firm and clear picture of
what STAR [State Reform Party] and other opposition parties plan to do.

“Our
aim is that the BN must be defeated. We did not expect that the infighting
between PKR/PAS/DAP to be so intensely divisive to the extent that the chances
of the opposition in capturing the state seats concerned is now jeopardised.

“If
we had known earlier that disarray within Pakatan would be so crippling, we
would have made preparations to contest more state seats.

“We
will reveal these seats in the next one or two days after we know the final
outcome of the infighting between PKR/PAS/DAP,” he added.